| | Picasso's La Lecture Sells at Sotheby's for £25.2 Million in Sale Totalling £68.8 Million
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A Sotheby's employee poses with artist Pablo Picasso's "La Lecture" at Sotheby's auction house in London. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor.
LONDON.- Tonight, Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Evening sale was led by Pablo Picasso’s iconic 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter, La Lecture, which sold to a round of applause for £25,241,250 /$40,711,612 / €29,744,296, more than double the low estimate (est. £12 – 18 million/$18.5-27.8 million). Following a heated bidding contest that lasted six minutes among at least seven bidders, both on the phone and in the saleroom, the work finally sold to an anonymous buyer bidding over the telephone. Achieving a strong total of £68,834,400 / $111,023,004 / €81,114,475, well within the pre-sale estimate of £55,630,000 - 79,250,000**, the sale was 84.5% sold by value. The average lot value for the works sold this evening was £2.15 million/ $3.5 million. Helena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Europe, said: “We were thrilled with the price achieved for Picasso’s La Le ... More |
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Maria Altmann, Who Recovered Gustav Klimt Paintings Looted from Her Family, Dies
Maria Altmann stands next to a print of a Gustav Klimt painting of her aunt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer". AP Photo/Reed Saxon,File.
By: Robert Jablon, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP).- Maria Altmann, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who successfully fought to recover Gustav Klimt paintings looted from her Jewish family, has died. She was 94. Altmann died Monday at her home in the Cheviot Hills area of Los Angeles after a long illness, said E. Randol Schoenberg, her friend and attorney. Altmann was already in her 80s in 1998 when she and Schoenberg began a legal fight with the Austrian government over the paintings, which included a world-famous gold-encrusted picture of her aunt, the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer." The 1907 masterpiece hung in the Austrian Gallery Belvedere in Vienna. The Austrian government contended that Altmann's aunt, who ... More | | Selections from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection at the Santander Art Gallery
Sara Ciraci, Questione de tempo. 1996. Fundazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
MADRID.- “Spirit and Space”, is the title of the exhibition that Fundación Banco Santander organises at the Santander Art Gallery at Boadilla’s Financial City from February 9th until April 29th. 124 works of art, 69 artists from 20 different countries that not only form a selection of what stands out most of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s Collection –one of the most important in the world- and in contemporary art of the last thirty years, that also reflects its essence in a spectacular mounting that establishes continually a dialogue with the public through all of its works in its nearly three thousand square metres of Santander’s Exhibition Room exhibitive sphere. The exhibit brings to Madrid most important and latest acquisitions of the Collection, amongst which stand out Pae White’s Still, untitled (2010) and James Casebere’s Landscape with Houses (2009), together w ... More | | Cezanne's Card Player Paintings to Be Shown at the Metropolitan Museum in NY
A woman views oil on canvas paintings by artist Paul Cezanne titled 'The Card Players' (1890). REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton.
NEW YORK (REUTERS).- The largest collection of Paul Cezanne's Card Player paintings to ever be exhibited together opens on Wednesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes three of five of the French master's famous series depicting peasants of the Aix-en-Provence region in a monumental light rarely used to portray the working classes at the end of the 19th-century. Gary Tinterow, chairman of the museum's department of 19th-century, modern and contemporary Art, described it as a landmark exhibition, the first devoted to the subject. "Created in the 1890s while the artist was living at his family's estate outside Aix-en-Provence, these images capture the character Cezanne admired in the people of the region," Tinterow said. "Together the works chart the development of the series as Cezanne ... More |
 | Technological Developments in Photographic Representations of Trees at the Getty
Myoung Ho Lee, Tree #11, 2005. Inkjet print, 50.8 x 40.6 cm. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © Myoung Ho Lee, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York 2009.97.3
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum presents In Focus: The Tree, a survey of important technological and aesthetic developments in photographic representations of trees, on view at the Getty Center from February 8 through July 3, 2011. The latest in the In Focus series of thematic exhibitions, this presentation of nearly 40 photographs provides visitors with an opportunity to explore the Getty Museum’s world-renowned permanent collection of photographs through the inspiring subject of trees. “This show poetically showcases how the tree is essential to our daily existence—from aesthetic explorations to spiritual reverence,” said Anne Lyden, associate curator, Department of Photographs, the J. Paul Getty Museum, who is co-curating the exhibition with Françoise Reynaud, curator of photographs, Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Ranging from 19th-century works to contemporary pieces, the ... More | | The Hermitage and the Prado Announce Exchange of Important Selection of Works
Spanish Culture minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde (C), Prado Museum Royal Patronage president Placido Arango sign the collaboration agreement between the two museums. EPA/KOTE RODRIGO.
MADRID.- The Minister of Culture, Ángeles González Sinde, yesterday presided over the signing of the agreements between the Museo del Prado, the State Hermitage Museum and the State Society for Cultural Action. These agreements pave the way for an unprecedented exchange between the two museums in the form of two major exhibitions that will demonstrate the variety, quality and breadth of the collections of these great institutions. In addition to the Minister of Culture, others present at the signing yesterday included Plácido Arango, President of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado, Charo Otegui, President of the State Society for Cultural Action, Miguel Zugaza, Director of the Museo del Prado, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Alexander I. Kuznetsov, Russian Ambassador to Spain, and the Special Ambassador for Russia-Spain Year 2011, Juan José Herrera de la Muela. The ... More | | Artists Take Inspiration from Prince William and Kate Middleton's Royal Wedding
American artist Jennifer Rubell stands beside her life-sized wax statue of Prince William. AP Photo/Joel Ryan.
By: Jill Lawless, Associated Press
LONDON (AP).- Call it inspiration, call it opportunism — as long as you call it art. Like business bosses and tourism chiefs hoping for a royal-wedding boost, artists are using the upcoming marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton as fodder for their work. A group of art students have posed in front of Buckingham Palace all dressed as Kate, a street artist has given Middleton a punk makeover, and a show by American artist Jennifer Rubell that opens Tuesday features a life-size wax model of William, and invites visitors to slip an arm through his and briefly live out dreams of becoming a princess. Rubell, a 40-year-old New Yorker best known for large-scale installations involving food, said that as soon as she heard news of the engagement in November, she knew she would use the event and its imagery in her work. "I also had the reaction that any woman has, whether you want to admit it to yourself or not: 'What if that were me?' "My first instinct is to be dismissive an ... More |
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Paris Exhibition Honors Associated Press Vietnam War Photographer Henri Huet
North West of Saigon, March 1967 © Henri Huet/Associated Press.
By: Jamey Keaten, Associated Press
PARIS (AP).- A U.S. Army medic peers through dirty bandages on his own head while caring for a wounded comrade. A helicopter winches up the lifeless body of an American soldier, silhouetted against a bare white sky. Such images from the Vietnam War feature in a new museum exhibit in Paris focusing on Associated Press photographer Henri Huet, who was killed 40 years ago when a helicopter he was riding in was shot down over Laos. Co-curated by the AP, "Henri Huet: Vietnam" focuses on about 70 photos that he took during the war. The show starts Tuesday and runs through April 3 at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris' Marais district. Huet, who was half-French and half-Vietnamese, and three foreign photographers died Feb. 10, 1971 when the South Vietnamese helicopter they ... More | | Museum of American History Receives Eddie Van Halen's "Frankenstein Replica" Guitar
Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein Replica guitar. Photo: Courtesy American History Museum.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has recently acquired the Van Halen “Frank 2” guitar played and made famous by Eddie Van Halen through a partnership donation with Fender Musical Instruments. It was made in 2006 as part of a joint venture between the artist and Fender to produce a limited edition number of guitars for the EVH Brand. Known as the “Frankenstein Replica,” or “Frank 2,” it will be part of the museum’s Division of Culture and the Arts, which preserves a large and diverse collection of instruments. Edward “Eddie” Van Halen (b. Jan. 26, 1955) is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, producer and self-taught inventor of guitar technology and technique. He is best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard-rock band Van Halen and recognized for his innovative performing and recording styles in blues ... More | | Exhibition of 19th-Century British Photographs from the National Gallery of Canada
Henry White, The Garden Chair, 11 September 1854. Albumen silver print, 17.8 x 14 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
OTTAWA.- Photography was born in 1839, making the 19th century the first to be recorded in this medium. Since then, photography has evolved dramatically from the original chemical processes to today’s digital technology. But its transformation during its first decades was an equally important transition. Until April 17, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) presents 19th-Century British Photographs from the NGC, a fascinating exhibition of some of the national collection’s key holdings, including some that have rarely been shown. The exhibition traces the development of photography in Britain over the course of the Victorian era, from early, salted paper prints, to daguerreotypes, to magnificent turn-of-the-century platinum prints. From the portraits of family and friends, small, familiar and domestic scenes, to grand and exotic scenes, the photographs in ... More |
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Increasing Interest in Rare, Oriental Carpets Continues Unabated Among Art Collectors
19th century pieces on wall and floor.
OAKLAND, CA.- On February 7, Jan David Winitz, founder and president of Claremont Rug Company, cited three major developments in the market for 19th century, art-level Oriental rugs as indicative of collectors’ rising interest in this emerging niche of the art world. “We may well be at the beginning of a decade-long emergence of the antique rug market as an important force in the collection world,” he said. Winitz pointed to three major results-based observations: • The steady increase in inquiries via the Internet about “best of the best” rugs • The continued impact of multiple-rug purchases for private collections or “whole home projects” and • The re-emergence of collectors who had put acquisitions on hold for the past two years. “We recently reported that, despite the global recession, 2010 was among the best in our 30 years in business,” he said. “We ... More | | Stephenson's Ushers in a New Year with an SRO $300,000 Auction of Estate Art and Antiques
Pair of hand-painted, bronze-mounted Sevres urns. Stephenson’s Auctioneers image.
SOUTHAMPTON, PA.- It was standing room only for both days of Stephenson’s Auctioneers’ first antiques and fine art sale of the year, held Jan. 1 and 2 at the company’s suburban Philadelphia gallery. Bidding was consistently strong throughout both sessions, which included decorative art and “smalls” on day one, and furniture and paintings on day two. The 714-lot auction cashed out with a robust total of just under $300,000. All prices quoted in this report include a 15% buyer’s premium. Two items in the sale achieved an individual selling price of $19,555, resulting in a tie at the top-lot position of prices realized. One of the blue-ribbon lots was a William Mason Brown (American, 1828-1898) Hudson River Valley oil-on-canvas landscape that had come from a residence in Bucks County, Pa. “Usually this artist’s still lifes bring more ... More | | Signed Martin Johnson Heade Painting Stagnated By Troubled and Villainous Art World
The painting in question is the epitome of pre-Raphael works and shows the influence of John Ruskin throughout.
JACKSONVILLE, FL.- Retired Army Senior Sergeant, Victor Hazon Hall says that he has found a signed painting worth millions of dollars at a local flea market. He blames corruption within the art world for the fact that art galleries familiar with the work of the artist, Martin Johnson Heade, refuse to authenticate the find. He has submitted the painting to a well known art restoration and conservation center in Atlanta, GA who confirmed that it is an original oil painting and that several features of the work are consistent with works known to have been created by Johnson Heade. The painting in question is the epitome of pre-Raphael works and shows the influence of John Ruskin throughout. It is unquestionably a masterpiece with historical connections to the ... More |
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Frieze Art Fair Announces a New Supporter for Frieze Projects and the Launch of the EMDASH Award
LONDON.- Frieze Art Fair announced today that the EMDASH Foundation, a new organisation that aims to encourage and enable the ideas of the future, from artistic and cultural projects to scientific research, will be the new supporter of Frieze Projects and the EMDASH Award. Frieze Projects, the fair's unique curatorial programme, will once again be curated by Sarah McCrory. Frieze Art Fair offers the artists commissioned by Frieze Projects an opportunity to use the fair as a site in which they can realise ambitious ideas in an exceptional environment. Frieze Art Fair is sponsored by Deutsche Bank. Founded by Andrea Dibelius in 2010, the EMDASH Foundation's activities are motivated by philanthropy, a commitment to supporting new ideas and emerging talent and a love for the arts. Frieze Art Fair and the EMDASH Foundation are also launching the EMDASH Award, a major opportunity for an emerging arti ... More
"Vinnylonglegs" to Be Auctioned at Bonhams
LONDON.- Bonhams are to sell a truly unique motorcycle which has spectacularly covered over 1million kilometres at the hands of one careful owner. It will be auctioned at the International Motorcycle Show in Staffordshire on April 24th 2011 and has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £35,000 - £40,000. Fondly nicknamed Vinnylonglegs, this 1955 Vincent Black Prince is probably one of the most travelled motorcycles in existence, having regularly toured Europe to notch up its staggering 721,703 miles. Northumbrian born Vincent enthusiast Stuart Jenkinson bought his new 998cc Black Prince from St. Andrew’s Motors in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1955. Since then he is the only person who has ever ridden it – with the sole exception, presumably, of the original works tester. Of the three Vincents he has owned it is undoubtedly his favourite. For 25 years Stuart used Vinnylonglegs for riding to work and long distance touring holiday ... More
Dora García Selected to Represent Spain in the 54th Edition of the Venice Biennale in 2011
VENICE.- The artist Dora García has been selected by Katya García-Antón, curator for the Spanish Pavilion, to represent Spain in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2011. Katya García-Antón, who was appointed in April 2010 curator of the Spanish Pavilion by AECID, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), has selected the artist Dora García to represent Spain at the next edition of the Venice Biennale, which will run from the 4th of June to the 27th of November 2011. Carlos Alberdi, Director General of Cultural and Scientific Relations at the AECID, convened the Advisory Committee for Contemporary Art last April with the objective of selecting the curator for the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The committee, which was comprised of Carmen Giménez (Curator of 20th Century Art, Guggenheim Museum, New York), Estrella de Diego (Professor of Contemporary Art, Universidad Complutense d ... More
Exhibition at Stills Presents Many of William Yang's Rich and Celebratory Images
SYDNEY.- William Yang is one of Australia’s greatest storytellers. The fact that his stories are image based makes them all the more powerful and unique. He is a fine and prolific photographer as well as a renowned theatre performer. His very personal stories describe the experience of being Chinese in an Australia that was not always hospitable to people of different appearances or of a different sexual persuasion. He says his mother wanted desperately to fit in, wanting her children to be more Australian than Australians. As a result Yang claimed his Chinese heritage and celebrated Sydney’s gay culture of which he was part. This exhibition presents many of Yang’s rich and celebratory images of the gay community in Australia’s most international city from the seventies to the present. They reveal a world of personal and sexual expression. Many are black and white documentary images of cultural events such as Mardi Gras and the Sleaze Ball. Others are colour ... More
Whitney Museum Partners with Foursquare
NEW YORK, NY.- The Whitney Museum of American Art is partnering with Foursquare on a new custom badge. Foursquare, a location-based mobile platform in which users “check in” at venues using a smartphone app or SMS, allows users to share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges. From February 8 through May 31, 2011, Foursquare users can unlock the Whitneyphile badge when they check in two times at the Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison at 75th Street) and once at one other location in the badge check-in list (see below). Foursquare users who unlock the Whitneyphile badge may present their smartphones at the front desk to receive $5 admission to the Museum. The badge holder may only redeem the offer once, and the offer is non-transferable. The check-in locations relate to the history and future of the Whitney as well as its founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and iconic American a ... More
Sylvie Clermont Madely Appointed Director National Gallery of Canada Foundation
OTTAWA.- Thomas d’Aquino, Chair of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, announced the appointment of Sylvie Clermont Madely as Director of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation. The Foundation’s Board of Directors selected Ms. Madely for this newly-created post following a reorganization of the Foundation’s mandate in 2010. She will begin her term as Director on February 14, 2011. “Ms. Madely is a consummate professional with more than fifteen years of experience as a motivational leader and fundraiser in the philanthropic field,” noted Mr. d’Aquino. “We are delighted that she is assuming this important leadership post at a time when the Foundation is engaging in ever greater activity on behalf of the National Gallery of Canada,” he continued. She will form an integral part of a team dedicated to building loyalty and support for Canada’s leading visual arts institution on ... More
Smithsonian Develops New Exhibition on American Business History
WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is planning a new long-term exhibition that will explore a key area of the American experience—the history of business and innovation. "American Enterprise" is the working title for the exhibition, which will trace the development of the United States from a largely dependent territory to the largest national economy in the world (1750s–2010s). The central goal of the exhibition is an understanding of the American business history story focusing on opportunity, competition and innovation in the American marketplace—the dynamic interplay of consumers and producers. The museum is working to raise private funds for the exhibition, which is scheduled to open in 2014. As part of the planning process, the museum's curatorial team will be hosting an exploratory website to open the research and exhibition process to the public. Through regular blog posts rea ... More
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